Chocolate and Limes

You name me. 
Chocolate and limes, 
bitter and bitter, 
two kinds and two rhymes. 


I need to know: how is the bitter made sweet? 
Is it dancing along a Venetian street? 
Floating on cushions just at water level? 
Roses and oceans of wine and unwind a little? 


Barren as desert compared to these hills 
Childless and broken, 
nameless and homeless, 
void 
and waiting on crucible change. 


 chocolate and limes and me
...a poisoned well? 


 Only true when I fail to remember, 
Remember barren is also 
to be free to love, 
challenging the bitter in me to transform, 
turning sweet; ice to water. 


I find my children in faces around me. 
Rock in river, 
step for tentative foot, 
Brief hold, 
refuge for the half-drowned. 


Each contact strengthens me, too. 
Remember, remember, 
to be an island is not the same as to be a desert. 
O my soul, 
An island, not always a desert.